For those dosing prodibio bioptim and biodigest

[AQD_ottawa]

Bacteria will consume nitrates and phosphates at a specific ratio, which might differ from the ratio they are created in our tanks. So when one zeroes out it becomes a limiting factor and the other starts to accumulate. Would be nice to see an experiment with adding some nitrates to see if the phosphates will drop then.

Yep this is correct, and why it is best to keep a background level of Nitrates in your tank, a real time zero level of nitrate is not ideal, you need nitrates to remove PO4.

Its a balancing act.

 

[coraltastic]

I have just restarted my tank. Coral r in frag tank. Wanting to start prodibio. I have a 180gal tank and 75gal sump probably 230gal total water. I already dosed 1 vial of bio digest yesterday. What do I need to do now, add 1 vial of bioptim next week or what. Really confused.

 

[spydr]

I have just restarted my tank. Coral r in frag tank. Wanting to start prodibio. I have a 180gal tank and 75gal sump probably 230gal total water. I already dosed 1 vial of bio digest yesterday. What do I need to do now, add 1 vial of bioptim next week or what. Really confused.

I believe you need to dose 1vial of each per 50gallons of water..
So you would need like 10 vials total 5bioptim and 5 digest ..dosed all at the same time

 

[lnevo]

For those dosing prodibio bioptim and biodigest

Isnt there a "large" model of the vials? Might take less.

Also along with Reef Booster should that be staggered or also the same time?

 

[Av8bluewater]

I have just restarted my tank. Coral r in frag tank. Wanting to start prodibio. I have a 180gal tank and 75gal sump probably 230gal total water. I already dosed 1 vial of bio digest yesterday. What do I need to do now, add 1 vial of bioptim next week or what. Really confused.

They steer away from suggesting doses that are too specific since every tank is different.


I chose to dose lower doses. 270 g total system. I do the Digest on schedule about every two weeks give or take. I'm only doing biotim about every 5-7 days. The tim is like the amount of bio pellets or vodks/vin. Adjust it as needed to your system.
I only have 7 fish and only one is big. feed small feedings 2-3 times a day.
So every tank will be different.
I'm about 2 months into this and Nitrate has always been zero. It did become a limiting factor for reducing PO4 like others said it would. So I am still using GFO to try to get that down more then I will stop it if I get it down some more. Or maybe use here and there as needed... lower the output, reduce amount ect.
I do have a fuge.. not much growth in there.
My SPS did whiten some and I started the booster. In one night there was a dramatic difference in my fungia. It went from being one of the nicer orange types to a totally electric iridescence. The other corals have been a slow change for the better. I also dose some other things vitalizer , kz aminos a couple times per week. So hard to tell how much this or that is helping.
I use filter socks and Alpha 250 skimmer which is an awesome skimmer.
Tank is so much better after I started using this stuff. It's amazing.

Also When I dose reefbooster I do it at night and turn off skimmer for the whole night. I may even start turning off my skimmer every other day. I want to get my nitrate up to 1-2ppm.
One of the biggest problems is now I have to buy a better camera to get some of those nice closeups

 

[youdontknowme]

Does anyone have good results of sps with reefbooster ? Im thinking of getting either reefbooster or polypbooster (polyplab)

 

[trueblackpercula]

hello everyone

have a question below

Do I need to add BIOPTIM to feed the Biodigest ? The reason I ask is because I know the bioptim feeds the bacteria and so will VSV or vodka but I am also dosing Pappone to feed my SPS 4 times a week at 5ml per feeding.
It's called the blu coral method and these are the ingredients and one of them is sugar. By the way this stuff is amazing and i have seen some serious results in growth and color. In addtion to that reefbooster is to feed the sps correct? and if so I dont need it because i am already feeding Pappone.

Here is the recipe for pappone:

Pappone Recipe Italian Coral Food (Updated 1/14/2007)

Materials:
5 Oysters
5 Mussels
5 Clams
5 Shrimp (NOT cocktail shrimp, the big scampi type w/o the head and the shell)
1 Tablespoon of Sugar (not corn syrup, etc.)
200 mL of RO/DI water
10 g of Red Algae (Palmaria palmata; Bisck uses Julian Sprung's brand)
and/or 10 g of Spirulina, 10 g of Nori (spirulina is what Bisck prefers)

Methods: Make SURE that all ingredients are the freshest possible and DO NOT use frozen foods (unless it is impossible for you). Make sure everything "live" is rinsed and cleaned before putting it into the blender. Put all the ingredients into the blender and blend for 5 min, wait 2 min for it to cool, 5 more min blending, 2 min of waiting again, then finally another 5 min of blending (the pausing is so that the solution doesn't get too hot and "cook" from the heat of the blender/blades). Pour into cube forms (approx 10 mL each). Then freeze it allâ€"you want to minimize how long everything is at room temperature.

Procedure: One hour prior to turning off your lights, you have the option of adding Amino acids to the tank*. (For example, 11pm Halides off, add AA’s, 12am, actinics off, then add pappone). Take off the cup of your skimmer, but leave the skimmer running (so you don’t have a massive drop in O2 levels overnight). After the lights are off, start with only a ¼ of a cube per WEEK for every 400 L of tank water (approx 100 gallons). Be sure to measure NO3 and PO4 the next morning so that these parameters don't spike after feeding. You can reduce the amount fed if you are having nutrient problems. Also don’t forget to put the skimmer cup back on the next morning before the lights go back on.

*If everything is going well. It is good to wait and see how the tank is doing for awhile before trying this. The whole point here is that you don't want to change anything too fast, because nothing good happens quickly in this hobby. (Another method to grind up amino acid pills in the next batch of food; however Bisck found that it sometimes causes diatom outbreaks in his tank).

Many thanks

 

[ssdawood]

1 vial of BioDigest will treat up to 250g so 1 vial...use every 2 weeks(dose day 15). If you want to speed up the process, add 1 vial more frequently...like 1 vial every 7 days.
BiopTim- same as above.
ReefBooster is a nutrient source for the bacteria...basically like carbon dosing. If your system is nutrient poor, you can dose it. But, if you have high nitrates and/or phosphates. I suggest NOT dosing reefbooster until those get ultralow

I thought biodigest is bacteria
bioptim is food for bacteria
reefbboster is food for corals while ur ulns.

 

[sahin]

I thought biodigest is bacteria
bioptim is food for bacteria
reefbboster is food for corals while ur ulns.

• BioDigest is the Bacteria: http://www.prodibio.com/bacteria-tank-delete-algae-tank-freshwater-marine-aquarium-bilogical-filtration
  
• Bioptim is the food/nutrition for Bacteria...ie Carbon Source: http://www.prodibio.com/bioptim-nutrients-bacteria-saltwater-freshwater-biological-filtration
  
• ReefBooster is the food for corals and bacteria: Kind of like KZ Pohls Xtra: http://www.prodibio.com/growth-development-corals-aquarium-saltwater-reef-booster

The link below has pdf info docs on the whole Prodibio Product range:
http://www.prodibio.com/fr/product-information-prodibio

Hope that helps.

 

[trueblackpercula]

Anyone?

 

[sahin]

Anyone?

Depending on how well your tank processes the Pappone food, you may not need it. Keep an eye on 4 thing for a couple of weeks whilst feeding without the use of Bioptim:

1. PO4 level
2. NO3 level
3. How quickly you get a dusting on the glass
4. Appearance of algae on rocks and sand.

1,2, and 3 should be your main cues. As long as PO4 and NO3 arent going crazy, and you only need to clean the glass every 3 days or so then you are ok. If you need to clean the glass every day, you can bet that within a week of feeding this stuff, unless you add some carbon source like Bioptim/vodka etc, your nutrients might get out of hand and start to cause algae issue.

Hope that makes sense?

 

[trueblackpercula]

Depending on how well your tank processes the Pappone food, you may not need it. Keep an eye on 4 thing for a couple of weeks whilst feeding without the use of Bioptim:

1. PO4 level
2. NO3 level
3. How quickly you get a dusting on the glass
4. Appearance of algae on rocks and sand.

1,2, and 3 should be your main cues. As long as PO4 and NO3 arent going crazy, and you only need to clean the glass every 3 days or so then you are ok. If you need to clean the glass every day, you can bet that within a week of feeding this stuff, unless you add some carbon source like Bioptim/vodka etc, your nutrients might get out of hand and start to cause algae issue.

Hope that makes sense?

Well thank you for the response and I do have to clean the glass more then every three days. The reason I started dosing biodigest was to combat cyno and that has worked but I do have brown algae on the sand bed. But after dosing biodigest my tank does look a lot better. So I guess I am off to purchasing the bioptim.

But before I do that is VSV better? I would like to think and hope the bioptim is better as it only has to be dosed every 15 days and that simplifies life for me.


Sorry po4 is steady at 0.03 to 0.01 and nitrate is 1
Thanks

 

[sahin]

Well thank you for the response and I do have to clean the glass more then every three days. The reason I started dosing biodigest was to combat cyno and that has worked but I do have brown algae on the sand bed. But after dosing biodigest my tank does look a lot better. So I guess I am off to purchasing the bioptim.

But before I do that is VSV better? I would like to think and hope the bioptim is better as it only has to be dosed every 15 days and that simplifies life for me.


Sorry po4 is steady at 0.03 to 0.01 and nitrate is 1
Thanks

Vinegar or or combo of VSV may be better simply because the Bioptim is dosed every two weeks....dosing a carbon source every day is probably better. FWIW I used Vinegar when I used Biodigest in the past.

 

[trueblackpercula]

Vinegar or or combo of VSV may be better simply because the Bioptim is dosed every two weeks....dosing a carbon source every day is probably better. FWIW I used Vinegar when I used Biodigest in the past.

Thank you very much for all the help.

 

[trueblackpercula]

Hello all have a few questions.

I started to dose last night and would like to know that I need to dose Bioptim at 2 vials every 15 days. Is it ok that I dose 1 vial every seven days to even out the dosing? Or do I have to add both at the same time?

Also I sometime shut my skimmer off does it have to be on 24 hours a day when dosing prodibio ?

Here is what I started on my Sps tank in conjunction with feeding pappone.

 

[lnevo]

I dont know about strontium and iodine but for the optim and digest you dont need to turn off skimmer. Only for reefbooster do you need to turn it off from my experience.

I prefer to follow the recommended every two weeks but i think a lot of people do it weekly.

 

[trueblackpercula]

I guess I wasn't really clear in my question. When dosing is it recommend to run a skimmer with prodibio 24/7 ?

Thanks

 

[lnevo]

Ahh sorry for that... Technically its a form of carbon dosing which can lower the amount of oxygen in the water so skimmer is recommended. Prodibio is not as aggressive as vodka or vinegar so i think you'd be ok. I skim 24/7. Obviously you'll need to make your own decision, hopefully other prodibio users chime in. For the record though, I havent seen any recommendations of skimmer requirements from prodibio...even on the reefbooster which will make your skimmer nuts..

 

[trueblackpercula]

Thanks I asked here because I couldn't find anything on it as well. I didn't make any make up water so my sump was very low so I shut the skimmer off yesterday but I normally run it 24/7 I will be making water tonight so the skimmer will be back on.

 

[Av8bluewater]

If I turn off my skimmer for the night my PH drops about an extra .1 to .15. O2 could be low.
But I do run a calcium reactor so not sure how much it has to do with the Prodibio. I don't think it really matters too much.
I think Prodibio keeps the dosing directions a little vague intentionally because every tank is so different. A lot will depend on how much you feed it seems and what you feed.
I have noticed when I put more Biotim it helps my GFO do it's job better. I could probably dose the Biotim more often and do away with the GFO. I'm still experimenting. I'm probably 3 months in now. Also from what I've read if there is not enough nitrate the bacteria can't bring down the PO4. I think it consumes both in a certain ratio.
A lot of people use biopellets or VSV instead of the Biotim. I like the biotim so far because it's not every day and no reactor to fiddle with. BTW Marine Depot has all the products on sale quite often for half price. Usually not all at once but seems to rotate around booster , tim and digest.